Fermented & preserved
Kinzanji Miso
Kinzanji Miso — chunky miso studded with summer vegetables
Soybeans mixed with barley koji ferment together with summer vegetables like eggplant, ginger, and myoga into a chunky relish-miso — said by one account to trace back to a technique brought from China, later spread to Edo after being presented to shogun Yoshimune.
- Origin: Chiba Togane
- About 60 km east of Tokyo
What it's made of
Soybeans are combined with barley koji and summer vegetables such as eggplant, young ginger, and myoga to make this side-dish miso. The juicy crunch of the vegetables, the sweetness of the koji, and the sharpness of the ginger layer together, making it good on its own over rice or with sake. Tied to the summer vegetable harvest, it has long been prized in the Togane area as a seasonal miso, its flavor varying somewhat by household.
How it's made
Eggplant and ginger, each cut into strips, are salted until softened and left overnight under a weight to draw out moisture. Myoga is blanched briefly and cut into thin strips. Barley koji, soy sauce, and sugar are combined in a bag, the drained vegetables are added and mixed well, and the bag is weighted down and kept in a cool spot, stirred daily. After about a week the flavors settle and it becomes fragrant and ready to eat, though in cooler weather it is sometimes left to cure for about two weeks instead.
Why it took this shape
Several accounts hold that the method was brought back by envoys or monks who traveled to China, and the practice of curing summer vegetables in barley koji appears in similar form across different regions. Within Chiba it has been carried on mainly around Togane, said to have taken root as a way to preserve the summer harvest without waste, still prepared today while each household keeps its own flavor — a miso woven into daily life, with related versions also found in neighboring prefectures.
Dishes in the same style
- Achara ZukeWhite melon, eggplant, and lotus root are pickled in a sweet vinegar spiked with red chili — the name is said to trace to the Portuguese 'achar', carried in through Hakata Bay's old trade, and an odd number of vegetables is used for Obon hospitality.
- AhodakiOld takuan pickle, once its flavor and aroma have faded, is desalted and simmered again in soy sauce, a pantry staple from the Hokusei area. Its name — playfully self-deprecating, roughly "doing a foolish thing" — nods to eating it well past its prime, a frugal way to waste nothing.
Ingredients and dishes from this land
Contrast
- Chikko ToufuA cow's first milk after calving is warmed and split with a little vinegar into a plain curd — tied to the story of shogun Tokugawa Yoshimune's white cattle raised at the Mineoka pastures, said to be the start of dairy farming in Japan, and long eaten among the region's dairy households.
- Shizuoka Kinzanji MisoRice and soy koji ferment summer vegetables — winter melon, eggplant, ginger, shiso seed — into a chunky paste eaten as-is rather than used to season. Originally a temple preserve for carrying summer vegetables into winter, it's said to be eaten across the prefecture and as far as Wakayama and Chiba.
Also from Chiba
- Arirang RamenA soy ramen said to have started at a single restaurant on a mountain pass in Chiba's Nagara. Named, it's said, for the legendary Arirang Pass of Korean folklore, its soy broth carries the sweetness of onion and pork, layered with house-made chili oil and grated garlic for depth and heat.
- Barappa ManjuFreshly milled wheat dough is wrapped around red bean paste and steamed on a leaf of catbrier, called barappa locally — a bun said to be made in Chiba's Hokuso area when people gathered for summer festivals or Obon, each bringing ingredients to share.
- Iwashi no Unohana-zukeSalt-and-vinegar-cured sardines are packed into sweet-vinegared tofu lees with carrot and ginger — the pale lees are likened to unohana blossoms in the name, and are also said to keep the fish from breaking apart or oxidizing; eaten at New Year's and as an everyday pantry food.
- Rakkasei MisoPeanuts too small or misshapen to sell are stirred into miso and sugar and toasted into a pantry relish — said to have started as a way for farm households to use up peanuts the market wouldn't take, in leaner years.
- SumitsukareDaikon and carrot, coarsely grated with a rough-toothed oni-oroshi grater, are simmered with leftover setsubun soybeans and sake lees — said to have traveled from Tochigi into Chiba's Higashikatsushika area, offered to the local inari shrine on the year's first Day of the Horse before being eaten. Ibaraki and Saitama carry dishes of the same name.
- Yude RakkaseiFreshly dug peanuts, still in their shells, are boiled whole in salted water — a taste unique to the growing region, since raw peanuts start hardening the moment they're pulled from the ground and need to be boiled almost immediately.